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Monday, April 2, 2012

Last week, we posted about the baby Faith that our organization is named after. This story is about another little girl named Faith. :)

I found out I was pregnant in December 2010. We had been trying for about a year and at first I didn't think I was pregnant. Then I thought I might be, took a test which came out positive and went to the doctor to confirm. I was pregnant! My husband didn't believe me when I gave him a card because I had already said I wasn't. My pregnancy seemed normal through the 1st trimester. I had really bad "morning sickness" (at night) and lost 12 pounds. Because I was going to be 35 when I delivered, I was considered a high risk pregnancy and my OB/GYN referred me to a perinatologist. At about 4 months, they did an ultrasound and felt that my baby might have Down's Syndrome, there was something wrong with her leg and that she had clubbed feet. This was a lot to take in at one appointment. The did an amniocentesis and it confirmed that I was going to have a girl that does not have Down's Syndrome. Whew! Now I am still worried about her brain because I know clubbed feet is treatable.

In early May I had the MRI to look at her brain on a Monday. My baby did not like that! She kicked the whole time. It was hard not being able to comfort her because I couldn't move. The next day I went to the doctor and they kept asking me if I was having any contractions. I was like no. The doctor talked to my OB/GYN and they decided it was best that I go to the hospital for observation. He was like they might keep you for a few hours or up to 24 hours. Aside from being scared, in my mind I was like I have so much to do, I was training someone at work, planning a luncheon for that weekend and was supposed to be leaving town for work on Sunday. No time to be hanging out in the hospital.

I was sent to the hospital that could handle babies born as early as I was at 25 weeks. At the hospital the started the steroid shots and giving me magnesium to stop the contractions. I still couldn't feel them! The NICU doctor came in and was giving me all the possible scenarios/outcomes of having a baby this early and what they could do. By Thursday I was still in the hospital and feeling like I had been had. Then on Friday when a doctor came to see me he was like we don't really send anyone home on weekends. I was able to step down from the high rish unit to the perinatal unit though. They wanted me on bed rest and worried that I didn't live close enough to get to the hospital if something went wrong. They told me they wanted to keep me until 28 weeks and then they would re-evaulate me to see if I could go home. Being on bed rest was hard for me, even as lazy as I am. At 28 weeks they ran some tests and decided I was still at high risk so no going home for me. By then I wasn't worried because overall my baby was doing great and in my mind she wasn't coming until she was due.

A few days later they moved me back to the high risk unit. They had me sign paperwork agreeing that they could deliver my baby if necessary. I still didn't think it would happen. The next day her heart rate dropped and wasn't coming back up so I had to have an emergency C-section.

Faith Ann Moore was born at 28 weeks and 3 days weighing 1lb 10ozs. The next day the dr. came in and said that Faith had a TE Fistula and Esophageal Artresia . This means that her stomach was connected to her trachea instead of her esophagus and her esophagus had a pocket. She needed surgery right away to disconnect her stomach and trachea so she wouldn't get Pneumonia. At 3 days old she had her first surgery and came through like a champ. We had to weight until she was 2 kilos, about 4lbs for her to have the surgery to connect her stomach and esophagus so she had a feeding tube. She kept needing a vent because she had really thick secretions that had nowhere to go and caused her to stop breathing. It was so scary to see her turn purple and be on the brink of death. Finally when she was 3 months she was big enough for the surgery. Again another successful surgery! She did have to be on a special oscillating vent for a few days, but otherwise did fine. We started trying to feed her and she did great, but was aspirating. A swallow study determined she needed thickened feeds. A week after her due date she went home after spending 3 months in the NICU.

3 weeks after she left the NICU she stopped breathing. She had been coughing and had stopped feeding because she was so congested but when I took her to the dr. they told us to use a humidifier. Turns out she had Pertussis (Whooping Cough) and we spent another two weeks in the hospital. They had moved her to a step down hospital after about a week and they said she was ready to go home a week later. I took her home on Friday and Sunday morning, she stopped breathing again and my husband had to perform CPR and we called 911. Another week in the hospital. A month and half later she caught a respiratory infection and we spent another week in the hospital.

Today she is 9 months old and doing much better. She is still small and relies on the feeding tube to eat. We are working on getting her to feed by mouth, but she also has bad reflux and basically spits up almost everytime she's fed.

Through it all, she is such a blessing. Not only to me and her dad, but our family and many people we have gotten to know by sharing her story. I know there are babies and families who've been/are going through much worse so I thank God for every blessing we have when it come to her.